UNC put lockdown after reports of ‘armed and dangerous’ person at Chapel Hill campus: Live updates

Police say that Mickel Deonte Harris, 27, of Durham, North Carolina, was taken into custody north of the UNC campus at around 2.45pm, according to WRAL.

UNC will cancel all classes for Wednesday, 13 September, according to an email sent to the university’s faculty, reported The Daily Tar Heel.

Police have taken one person into custody on Formosa Lane in Chapel Hill, north of the UNC campus, reported WRAL.

UNC campus police lifted the lockdown after more than an hour following reports of an “armed and dangerous person.”

A campus alert was sent out at 12.54pm ET, asking students and staff to “go inside now” and to “avoid windows” because of the threat posed “on or near campus.”

At 2.10pm the university put out an updated alert that stated: “All clear. All clear. Resume normal activities.”

Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences and a researcher, was shot and killed last month on campus sparking an hours-long lockdown.

Mr Yan was listed as the academic adviser to alleged killer UNC PhD student Tailei Qi, 34, who was arrested in the shooting.

Before joining UNC in 2019, Mr Yan was an assistant professor at Clarkson University in New York and received postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago. The slain professor left behind two young daughters.

He was shot at Caudill Laboratory which is roughly a quarter-mile from the student union that houses Alpine Bagel Cafe where police have zeroed in on in the incident on Wednesday. Students were seen running from the student union, WRAL reported.

The latest lockdown comes just 24 hours after UNC students protested state gun laws at the State House in nearby Raleigh, chanting “Vote Them Out” towards the politicians present.

Just last month, Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences, was gunned down on the Chapel Hill campus.

Police are on the lookout for a suspect involved in an incident at Alpine Bagel at the UNC Student Union after a person was seen with a firearm, according to WRAL.

Sources told the TV station that no shots have been fired.

Video from the scene showed law enforcement vehicles parked near the student union near the intersection of Stadium Drive and South Road, and audio of the sirens going off across the campus were posted to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

All Chapel Hill-Carrboro City schools have been advised to enter “Secure Mode” due to reports of an armed and dangerous person on or near the UNC campus.

This means the doors will be locked, people are not allowed in or out, and classroom instruction can continue normally inside, according to a tweet.

“Stay close to your phone & email for updates as we monitor this new & ongoing situation,” it advised.